To all our friends who have expressed interest in Hillsong New York City:

This email has no doubt been a long time coming and on behalf of my wife and our Co-Pastor Joel Houston we sincerely thank you for your interest, your patience and your prayers as we embark on what is truly an exciting journey. This email will hopefully answer a few questions and give you an idea of where we are headed with Hillsong NYC. Laura and I have finally landed in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and Joel is in the process of finding his home here and very soon will be completely re-located to New York City. And what a city God has called us to…

To all the people who live in the New York area and are truly interested in exploring the opportunity of becoming a part of this church family, I would ask that you please send an email to nyc@hillsong.com so we can begin a new information base of people who are relatively local and we can answer more specific questions concerning how you can get involved and stay up-to-date with meetings and services that will take place in the very, very near future.

For those of you who are not from the New York State area but are seriously considering relocating your entire life to become a part of this, we would ask that you also send your name and details to nyc@hillsong.com. Again, this will allow us to better help you find out if this truly is something you feel called and commissioned to do, and in some cases we can respond directly to your situation.

If you have contacted us simply because you love Hillsong Church and are excited about what’s going on and want to stay up-to-date so you can pray for us to support what’s happening, we will continue to send updates to the names we currently have - we truly appreciate your excitement and we love your support! So unless you remove your name from this contact list, you’ll keep hearing from Joel, Laura and me!

If you have sent an email or facebook message over the past few months to either Joel Houston or myself and have not received a reply, it may be a good idea to resend that to the new address above. We apologize for not being able to get back to individuals as quickly as we would have liked to…though we are so honored you would even take the time to write - we now have more opportunity to respond to inquiries.

We have received a fantastic amount of heartfelt emails from people literally all over the world who have asked some thoughtful questions regarding ministry opportunities, staff positions and specific roles in the life of Hillsong NYC. We’ve done our best to answer some of these questions below, and please feel free to add your comments and further questions for discussion:

Are there employment opportunities at Hillsong NYC?

When we say we are starting from absolute ground level, we really mean it. We are not hiding an administrative staff, we don’t have access to Madison Square Garden (just yet), we are not housing the Hillsong United Crew in a NYC garage waiting to unveil a stellar worship team at the proper time…this is ALL NEW! For instance our worship team right now consists of Ava and Charlie Lentz. Both are temperamental, Joel has been intimidated leading them and they have transportation challenges. So we truly have to build each and every team

Having said all that, I’d like to re-iterate we are a church plant and we do not have paid ministry positions available at this time. However, we do have literally hundreds of ways for you to serve and become a vital part of who we are in this great city.

VOLUNTEERING

Anyone who comes to serve at Hillsong NYC will be doing so entirely on a voluntary basis. As we grow and mature as a church, we believe that God will enable us to grow our ministry team and we will add to that, as we are able. Some day that could very well include people from all over (even people reading this email) and we are excited about that possibility. But at this stage, we are simply looking for people who are willing to serve with no expectation and no personal agenda. The strength of Hillsong Church has always been our belief that God builds his church from the inside out. When people come, get planted and serve God wholeheartedly, the possibilities are endless.

Everywhere we look, there is need. And when you plant a church, it’s a good idea to remind yourself that you look to fill the need before you look to fill a certain role or title. We need ‘all hands on deck’, all the time.

More often than not, you find yourself serving where your passion is - but in the event that doesn’t happen, we believe God CREATES a passion that may not have been there before. That sounds like an adventure to me! By all means, contact us with your strengths and things you have done in the past, because that is actually extremely helpful…just be prepared for the chance to grow in areas you never dreamed possible, that will help you add to the amazing gifts you have already put into action.

We also feel extremely passionate about stating this emphatically: if you are already an active part of a local church, especially in New York City, we encourage you to stay planted in your church. When churches add numbers due to Christians switching churches, often it’s a giant subtraction for the Church as a whole. There are instances where it’s okay to do that and if you feel that God has called you to transition out of your church and you have the blessing of people and leaders that you trust, by all means find out more about Hillsong NYC. But more than that, our heart is to help build and support churches in this city and by the grace of God, we will see that happen in a major way.

WHEN WILL SERVICES AT HILLSONG NYC START?

As things stand now, we have a plan that is already in motion and we are looking to start our services when the time is right - but Hillsong NYC has indeed started! In houses all over the city, we have connect groups that are meeting, people serving and God is moving. People assume that this church starts when our worship services start, but right there we have a chance to change people’s thinking. Church is not just a service, it’s a community of believers dedicated to preaching the gospel and helping people. Churches have services and we plan on having some amazing, soul winning, Jesus glorifying services, but this community of believers is more than a weekly meeting.

We are in full swing and the momentum on this church plant is already supernatural and phenomenal to watch as it unfolds. As I write this, it’s 2AM and the streets are so full, you’d think it was midday. They call New York ‘the City that never sleeps’ and we are totally up for the challenge! We have joined with the many fantastic churches that have already been faithfully standing in the middle of this fight for New York City and we are not going away. It’s the adventure of a lifetime; we value each and every person that has expressed interest in this new chapter and look forward to staying connected to you and seeing whom God gathers to build HIS church.

All the best,

Carl Lentz, Hillsong NYC

For more information on Hillsong New York City please visit hillsong.com/newyorkcity or email nyc@hillsong.com

via Hillsong Collected